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The Bach's Beach Vision Of Jazz Heaven

By ARTHUR R GEORGE

Heaven for some is a baseball diamond in an Iowa cornfield. For Pete Douglas, it was a house on a beach with a jazz club in his living room, a would-be heaven also for anyone who dropped in. Douglas passed on, in 2014 at age 85, sitting at his desk overlooking the Pacific Ocean. But his vision lingers at the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, aka the Douglas Beach House, at Miramar Beach on Half Moon Bay in Northern California ...

Seven Women 2018 – Part VI

By C. MICHAEL BAILEY

Jazz vocals remains a vibrant and productive subgenre as evidenced by this spate of recent releases. Diane Marino Soul Serenade: The Gloria Lynne Project M&M Records 2018 Singer Gloria Lynne had a long and productive career, one that remained unjustly in the shade, deserving of the attention that it is getting now from singer Diane Marino on Soul Serenade: The Gloria Lynne Project. Marino began on piano, studies with Murray Perahia at ...

Yokada: Stillness & Sirens

By KARL ACKERMANN

A new Stockholm-based piano trio, Yokada, has released their debut recording on Lisa Ullén's Disorder label. Though the sparse liner notes give no indication, it is a safe assumption that the trio's name comes from Andrew Hill's “Yokada Yokada" on Judgment! (Blue Note, 1964). This release--Stillness and Sirens--features one composition that is a tribute to Hill. The members of the trio have previously worked together in partial combinations and their ability to put the recording portion of Stillness ...

Rain Sultanov & Isfar Sarabski: Cycle

By IAN PATTERSON

The church organ has been a bit player in jazz history, impacting about as much as an Alfred Hitchcock cameo--blink and you'd miss it. Jan Garbarek and Kjell Johnsen's meditative duo album Aftenland (ECM, 2000) and a trio of gothic jazz recordings by Asaf Sirkis and the Inner Noise spring to mind, but after that you'd really have to dig. Cycle sees Azerbaijan's leading jazz musicians, soprano saxophonist Rain Sultanov}] and pianist/organist {{Isfar Sarabski embrace the solemnity of church organ ...

Norman Connors: Love From The Sun

By CHRIS MAY

Love From The Sun is the last unalloyed jazz album recorded by drummer, composer and bandleader Norman Connors under his own name, before he changed course towards R&B and then descended--yes, let us embrace a judgemental moment--into the quagmires of disco and smooth jazz. In autumn 1973, when this album was recorded, Connors, who had made his recording debut on Archie Shepp's The Magic Of Ju-Ju on Impulse! in 1967, had just come off two straight years as a member ...

Jeff Denson: Outside My Window

By JEROME WILSON

Bassist Jeff Denson has been showing his abilities as a singer on several recent recordings. He performed a couple of The Beatles' songs on the San Francisco String Trio's May I Introduce To You and did Jeff Buckley's “So Real" on the Negative Press Project's Eternal Life: Jeff Buckley Songs and Sounds. Here he devotes an entire album to his vocals, singing the work of Buckley, Peter Gabriel, Abbey Lincoln and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, in addition to several of his ...

Darrian Ford: New Standards

By GEANNINE REID

New standards is a term that is often thrown around in jazz. As in all genres, there are articulate writers, with songs that stand the test of time, and others who simply fade into the background. Enter a new artist on the jazz scene, Darrian Ford. New Standards is Ford's debut full-length album in the jazz-pop genre, and he steps into the spotlight with a full arsenal of well-penned originals and a voice that suggests he has ...

Belovèd Django Bates

By LUDOVICO GRANVASSU

If you are intrigued by jazz because of its capacity to surprise, amaze, astound, even flabbergast and leave you without words... then British pianist Django Bates is the musician for you! This week Mondo Jazz has reached out to Django Bates for an interview, in advance of his North American tour. This episode features almost two hours of music by Django Bates, from the Loose Tubes days to his current Belovèd Trio featuring Swedish bassist Petter Eldh and ...

Dot Time Legends Series: Is Every Night New Year's Eve Around Here?

By RICHARD J SALVUCCI

Soon after The Embers opened in New York City in late 1951, Joe Bushkin and His Quartet spent 16 memorable weeks there. With Milt Hinton and Jo Jones, Bushkin was joined by Buck Clayton on trumpet. Astoundingly, Art Tatum had a solo piano gig there at the same time. Bushkin and Tatum listened to each other every night. The crowd was as distinguished as the players. Louis Armstrong sat in with Bushkin, and Vladimir Horowitz was in the house one ...

Peter Erskine at the 2018 Alba Jazz Festival

By ANTONIO BAIANO